Connexions module: m14065 1

Extended Techniques for Flute:

Common Techniques John

McMurtery

Patricia Gray

This work is produced by The Connexions Project and licensed under the

Creative Commons Attribution License

Abstract

The modules contains, video, scores and text describing the most frequently used extended techniques

for ute in contemporary literature.

John McMurtery Website1

1 Flutter Tonguing

Flutter-tonguing is one of the oldest and most widely-used extended techniques, dating back to the worksof Richard Strauss. Flutists should be familiar with and be able to execute the two dierent types: oneproduced by rolling the tongue; the other by vibrating the throat. Composers notate utter-tonguing inone of two ways: through use of three slashes through a note stem, or by writing atterzunge (or att.).Composers are more and more commonly choosing to specify the type of utter-tonguing to be used ina given passage, indicating rrrr for the throat version. The technique has many uses beyond the merespecial eect. In the following passage from his solo ute piece Oiseau Miro, for example, James Romiguses utter-tonguing to highlight prominent individual and small groups of notes within a dense musicalsurface.

Play Movie2

James Romig: Oiseau Mir (m. 54-58)

Version 1.1: Oct 20, 2006 7:42 pm -0500http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/1http://www.johnmcmurtery.com2http://www.johnmcmurtery.com/ET/QT/CTft.mov

http://cnx.org/content/m14065/1.1/

Connexions module: m14065 2

Figure 1

2 Pitch Bends Ex. 1

Another extremely common technique in ute writing is the pitch bend, or glissando. There are two dierentkinds of glissandi, the ngered gliss, and the lip gliss. The lip gliss has a smaller pitch range than the ngeredvariety, but is more versatile because just about every note on the ute can be bent to a certain extent (thoughpitches in the rst two octaves are much easier to bend than third-octave notes). Fingered glissandi are onlypossible on certain notes of a French model (open-hole) ute, so it is best for a composer to consult aperformer before using them. A glissando is notated as a straight line from the note head, up or downdepending on its direction. This example illustrates the lip gliss.

Play Movie3

James Romig, Sonnet 2 (m. 30-31)

Figure 2

3http://www.johnmcmurtery.com/ET/QT/CTpb1.mov

http://cnx.org/content/m14065/1.1/

Connexions module: m14065 3

3 Pitch Bends Ex. 2

Play Movie4

Edward Taylor, Voices in the Night (VII: m. 1-3)

4 Harmonics

Harmonics are produced on the ute in a similar way as on brass instruments: by ngering one noteand manipulating the embouchure to produce higher pitches corresponding to the harmonic series. Thesealternate ngerings aect both the tone color and the pitch of the written note. Composers exploit uteharmonics in a variety of ways. One particularly beautiful passage is the "Sea Nocturne" variation in GeorgeCrumb's Vox Balanae, or Voice of the Whale. Here, several harmonics are alternated with regular ngeringsin rapid succession to create a "shimmering" eect. Crumb uses the standard notation of a small circle abovethe note head, and indicates the ngered notes in parentheses.

Play Movie5

George Crumb, Vox Balanae (Sea Nocturne, p. 14, top)

Figure 3

4http://www.johnmcmurtery.com/ET/QT/CTpb2.mov5http://www.johnmcmurtery.com/ET/QT/CThar.mov

http://cnx.org/content/m14065/1.1/